The crop for the past seven years calculated by _The Grape Belt_[100] from figures secured from the railroads are as follows: "Season of 1900 8000 carloads "Season of 1901 6669 carloads "Season of 1902 5062 carloads "Season of 1903 2952 carloads "Season of 1904 7479 carloads "Season of 1905 5362 carloads "Season of 1906 5634 carloads" The seeming decrease in carloads shipped as the years progress is far more than made up by the greater use of the fruit in local wineries and grape juice factories. According to figures gathered in the preparation of this work about 90 per ct. of the grape acreage of the region is set to Concord followed by 3 per ct. of Niagara, 2 per ct. of Worden and 1 per ct. each for Moore Early and Catawba with the remaining 3 per ct. made up of a dozen or more sorts among which Delaware leads. The shipping season in this district begins early in September and lasts well into November though late varieties, as Catawba, and small lots of Concord are held some weeks longer. Improved storage facilities are yearly lengthening the season. Several systems of pruning and training are in vogue in the district but the majority of the vineyards are pruned and trained in a system peculiar to Chautauqua County. The posts are from six to eight feet in height, one to each three vines; two wires complete the trellis. The lower wire is from 28 to 32 inches from the ground and the second from 22 to 36 inches above the first, the distance being changed as the vine comes to maturity. The grapes are trained according to the upright system and the vines are renewed to short horizontal arms and but few canes are taken out each year; the trunk reaches only to the lower wire. The arms are loosely tied to the lower wire and the canes and bearing shoots to the wire above. Cultivation varies greatly but the best growers practice close cultivation and make use of fertilizers; the cover crop is growing in favor. Spraying is not very general as the region has been remarkably free from pests. The chief insects now encountered are the grape-vine fidia,[101] the flea-beetle,[102] the grape leaf-hopper[103] and the grape berry moth.[104] The several fungal diseases found in this region are, about in order of importance, black-rot, downy mildew, or "brown-rot," powdery mildew, and anthracnose, or "bird's-eye rot." THE CENTRAL LAKES DISTRICT